About ACXPA – the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association
ACXPA is a new industry association that unites Customer Experience (CX), Contact Centre and Customer Service professionals in Australia.
Whether your customers are handled by voice, digital or retail channels, ACXPA provides the insights, resources and support to deliver best and next-practice customer management operations and strategies across all channels to create a powerful force that will transform any business.
Whilst the association may be new, we’ve been actively supporting the Australian contact centre and CX community since 2011 through the CX Central website, which was the leading resource for contact centre and CX professionals in Australia and already, we’ve established ourselves as the leader in providing valuable resources for the industry and a world-class website packed full of value for members.
We’re excited to bring you a modern, professional, and vendor-agnostic association that is driven to create better outcomes for customers, businesses, and those working in the industry.
Why launch a new industry association?
According to our recent research, there are over 1.4 million Australians who are directly involved with customer interactions as part of their employment yet our industry has failed to have a collective voice, there is confusion over the benefits of customer experience (CX), contact centres are still largely seen as an inferior job and like every industry, technology is moving at a rapid pace that presents both a threat and significant opportunity.
And talk to average Australians, and they’ll tell you that the standard of customer service in Australia has never been worse, and it’s hard to disagree.
In fact, if we look at the Contact Centre Rankings Report, the industry average score is rated as ‘Below Standard’, and stories of poor customer experiences regularly feature in the news.
As industry professionals, there isn’t a day that goes by where we shake our head in wonder about just how such poor customer experiences can even exist as, more often than not, there are simple and effective solutions available that, as well as delivering a better customer experience, it would actually save the business money!
And when we take a helicopter view of the industry:
- Most associations now just seem to promote vendor-sponsored content and awards programs rather than provide genuine industry resources.
- The biggest ‘industry’ conferences are produced by professional events organisations who see them as money-making events and have no real vested interest in our industry.
- There is still a lack of awareness around the benefits contact centres, BPOs and customer experience practitioners deliver to organisations and there is little to no understanding in the business community that when businesses invest in their customer experience, all key business metrics improve (i.e. profitability, EBIT etc.).
- The complexity of managing customer contact continues to increase with a proliferation of new channels, technology (AI in particular), and unprecedented employee challenges, and the only genuine support comes from vendor-sponsored events and content.
So it was a matter of keep whinging about it, or do something about it.
So we did!
The ACXPA Journey So Far…
We might be a new industry association, but our legacy extends back to 2011 when we first launched Australian Contact Centre Community TV (Ac3TV), and you can see on the timeline below that there have been a number of milestones along the way!
It’s certainly not an easy task launching an industry association and throughout 2024, our focus is on finalising our State Advisory Boards (local committees in each state), our Practitioner Advisory Boards (individuals who can provide a voice for each of the functions/roles within our industry) along with getting into a regular rhythm with our Member Symposiums, Contact Centre & Customer Experience Roundtables, CX Matters Podcast etc.
We also plan on launching two new websites that will provide further value to our industry:
- Flexible Jobs – a new, purpose-built jobs website for our industry.
- Where is the Call Centre – a website to help consumers connect with businesses that use Australian-Based Contact Centres.
If you’re passionate about the industry and interested in helping support ACXPA and giving back to our industry, please get in touch with us for a chat or reach out directly to our CEO, Justin Tippett, on LinkedIn.
Haven’t heard of us yet?
You might be surprised to learn that each month, ACXPA receives approximately 500% more visitors on our website than the other industry associations combined!
And we also consider the traffic to our CX Central website, that number increases to around 900%.
Since we first started producing content in 2011, we’ve been steadily building up a loyal following of industry professionals who have valued our extensive resource library of articles, glossary terms, industry insights, helpful templates, guides and calculators that have been provided completely free to help move our industry forward.
Visitors enjoy our content across a range of categories, including Call Centre Rankings, Industry Insights, Contact Centres, Customer Experience, Customer Service, downloads, podcasts and more.
We’ve published over 750 articles and 160 Glossary Terms (and growing!) to share best practice tips, insights and inspiration!
Followers enjoy our content across Linkedin, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Tik Tok and Twitter/X catering to those new to the industry through to seasoned veterans.
ACXPA Membership Benefits
ACXPA has been designed to provide businesses with the skills, insights, support and networks they need to elevate their customer experience regardless of their channel preferences.
Whether it’s working in a CX role, a contact centre, customer service, an office/admin team or the frontline, if your business involves customer interactions, we’ll help to:
- Optimise the customer experience to deliver improved business outcomes such as increased customer acquisition and retention.
- Improve efficiency in servicing customers that delivers real business savings.
- Optimise customer channels including voice, digital and in-person.
- Improve Employee Experience to increase engagement and retention.
- Arm you with the latest industry insights and best-practice methodologies to make informed decisions.
- Provide a support mechanism to connect with other like-minded industry professionals.
Click below to learn more about how ACXPA can help benefit you.
Built for and by industry professionals
ACXPA has been built and designed by industry professionals who all wanted to make a positive difference in our industry.
We’re proud of our website and the tools, resources and content we’ve developed based on decades of experience.
Just take a look around our website, read some articles, watch some symposium presentations, see how our Members Directory works, listen to a podcast, check out the glossary, search the supplier directory, view available downloads, test yourself on an industry knowledge quiz and more – you can see, hear and feel the passion we have for the industry.
While some of our features are exclusive for members only, we’ve provided videos, sneak previews, etc., so if you are considering joining as a member, you can see what you will get before you invest.
Memberships that deliver genuine value
Starting at just $197 per year, an ACXPA Membership is full of genuine value with specially crafted membership options for individuals, businesses and vendors:
Individual membership – provides access to all the ACXPA resources, including the monthly symposiums, private groups, members directory, templates and guides you can download, and lots more!
Business memberships will help your business elevate the customer experience and improve efficiency in customer management, as well as improve the skills and engagement levels of your employees working in CX roles, whether they are just getting started or looking for thought leadership.
Vendor memberships, if you provide products and services to the industry, our Vendor Memberships will help you to improve brand awareness and generate leads.
